The assignee of the subject patent application has previously used the type of landing gear design which is illustrated in FIGS. 5A-5B and which is admitted to be prior art to the subject patent application. FIGS. 5A-5B generally depict a spacecraft 200 which includes a space travel vessel 204 and landing gear 228 therefore. The space travel vessel 204 is defined at least in part by a back panel 212 which is disposed about a central reference axis 214. A heat shield 208 is interconnected with the back panel 212 and projects in the direction which the spacecraft 200 travels when descending upon a planetary surface (at least generally in the direction of the reference axis 214). Part of the back panel 212 includes at least one instrument deck 216. The instrument deck 216 is movably interconnected with the back panel 212 via a deck pivot 224. Deployment of the instrument deck 216 thereby entails pivoting a top edge 220 of the instrument deck 216 about the deck pivot 224, typically to where the instrument deck 216 is at least generally horizontally disposed.
Three landing leg assemblies 230 are radially spaced about the central reference axis 214 (only one shown in FIGS. 5A-B) and define the landing gear 228. Each landing leg assembly 230 includes a main leg assembly 232 which is movably interconnected with the space travel vessel 204 via a main leg pivot 244. Components of the main leg assembly 232 include an outer tube 236 and an inner tube 240. The outer tube 236 is disposed about the inner tube 240 in the stowed position. A foot pad assembly 264 is pivotally interconnected with a distal end of the inner tube 240. When the landing gear 228 is deployed, an appropriate biasing member (not shown) is allowed to act on the inner tube 240 in a such a way so as to move the inner tube 240 axially within and out of the outer tube 236 from the position illustrated in FIG. 5A to the position illustrated in FIG. 5B where a latch initially fixes the position of the outer tube 236 relative to the inner tube 240. Engagement of the foot pad assemblies 264 on the planetary surface on which the spacecraft 200 lands exposes each main leg assembly 232 to a compressive force. Forming a portion of the main leg assembly 232 from a crushable material dampens this impact to a degree, although compaction of the main leg assembly 232 is limited so as to continue to dispose the space travel vessel 204 above the subject planetary surface.
Another part of each landing leg assembly 230 is an A-frame 252 which is defamed by a pair of stabilizers 256 (only one shown). Each stabilizer 256 is pivotally interconnected with the space travel vessel 204 at a stabilizer pivot 260, and is fixedly interconnected with the corresponding foot pad assembly 264 so that the relative position between each stabilizer 256 and its corresponding foot pad assembly 264 does not change in moving from the stowed position of FIG. 5A to the deployed position of FIG. 5B. Unlike the main leg assembly 252 which telescopes when moving from the stowed position to the deployed position, the plurality of stabilizers 256 are of fixed length (i.e., no extension capabilities whatsoever). Therefore, throughout the entirety of the time in which each main leg assembly 232 is extending, each main leg assembly 232 is also pivoting relative to the space travel vessel 204 about its corresponding main leg pivot 244. Based upon the fixed length of the stabilizers 256, together with the need to dispose the space travel vessel 204 a certain predetermined distance "h.sub.1 " above the planetary surface on which the spacecraft 200 is disposed, each main leg pivot 244 is disposed vertically beyond (at a higher elevation) the instrument deck 216 when deployed (i.e., the instrument deck 216 is located at an intermediate location between the planetary surface on which the spacecraft 200 is disposed and the elevation where the various main leg pivots 244 are disposed). Moreover, the main leg assembly 230 is disposed at an angle .theta., which is measured relative to vertical and which is about 25.degree..